"Bruegel's Mirror"

AN EXHIBITION OF OIL PAINTINGS BASED ON THE ENGRAVINGS OF BRUEGEL

BY LAURENCE SMITH (1943-2026)

In his own day, the 16th century, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was known more for his inventive designs of copperplate engravings than for his now-famous paintings of dancing peasants.

So in this project Laurence painted, in oils, a number of his engraved designs in the hope that, by enlarging them and painting them in Bruegel's colours, these extraordinary graphic works will become better known and more accessible.

He also reproduced, with the help of fragments and engravings, two of Bruegel's oil paintings which have been lost or destroyed over the centuries.

These paintings have been exhibited by Mid Border Arts and by Hereford Art College, also in
Cornwall at Helston Museum and The Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro.